Contents

7. Recommendations

Young people's participation must be made more meaningful by
building their engagement in from the start of the policy-making
process at the planning stage. This includes prioritising topic
areas, setting the agenda and designing the methods of
engagement.

Policy makers must be encouraged to think more creatively
than one-off consultation events. If these do arise, there are
still opportunities to involve children and young people and give
them more control, whether through shaping the programme and the
methods, getting involved in facilitation or reporting and
sharing findings creatively.

Scottish Government and local authorities should build in
consistent funding streams to promote the participation of
children and young people. Wherever possible this should support
ongoing, child led engagement where children and young people are
given a space to raise issues that they want to talk about.

More must be done to support the participation of vulnerable
groups, including those with additional support needs and younger
children. Adequate time, resource, planning and partnerships can
also support wider engagement and need to be factored in. This
can support preparation prior to engagement work and the
development of 'specialist' methods.

All participation and engagement work should be supported by
staff with the right skills and experience. Partnership working
is often an effective option here.

Participation and engagement activity should be underpinned
by a child rights approach. Policy makers should be aware of
their responsibilities under the
UNCRC
and understand their role in enabling children and young people
to have their rights upheld.

All participation and engagement work should be consolidated
by ongoing and accessible feedback both throughout and at the end
of the project, regardless of the success or impact of the
engagement.

Children and young people usually engage in policy making as
volunteers, and have wider lives to consider. Timescales and
expectations must reflect this. Organisations must consider how
they can best thank or recompense children and young people for
their contributions. They should also respect children and young
people's right to drop out of engagement work at any point.

The Scottish Government and partners need to find ways of
measuring/quantifying the impact of young people's involvement.
Wherever possible children and young people should be involved in
evaluation of engagement activity.